Smithville wins in boys basketball tourney at Wooster

By JOEL PFAHLER
Special to The Daily RecordPublished: February 27, 2013 4:00AM

WOOSTER -- Baseball season isn't here yet, but it felt like it at Wooster High School Tuesday night. After the first half, the Smithville Smithies scored double the points of the Keystone Wildcats by a margin of 6-3.

Both teams played tight defense and took decent shots, but struggled to put the ball in the hole.

"I didn't know what to say," said Smithville coach Jim Frizell. "All our shots were hitting the front of the rim.

"I equate it a lot to a pitcher trying to aim a strike instead of throwing a strike. I said 'Let it fly, let it go. Quit thinking about that part of it and just shoot the ball.' Whether it was that first game tournament jitters on a different floor, I don't know."

It turned out to be a basketball game after all, and Smithville beat Keystone 52-43 to survive to the next round of the Div. III Wooster Sectional at Wooster High.

Within the two minutes of the second period, Blake Bohlen hit two 3-pointers to spark the Smithies. Then, Alex Bates dished a nice pass to Bohlen down low for another two.

Before Smithville could get too hot, leading 14-7, the game was paused by two floor timeouts. First, a flagrant foul at halfcourt gave Smithville's Micah Butler a bloody nose. Forty seconds later, Keystone's leading scorer Adam Hopkins drew a hard foul under the basket, which also drew blood.

The game evened out from there. Issac Callender threw an alley-oop to Bates but Keystone answered with a 3-pointer. Despite low shooting percentages from both teams, Smithville led 19-15 at the half and never trailed.

"We were all pretty impatient. In the second half we all kinda slowed it down a little bit and once we moved the ball, it gave people a better opportunity for a better look at the basket and that heightened our percentages," said Bates.

Coach Frizell's philosophy worked for Jimmy Pew, who after missing his first five shots of the game, started off the second half by burying two 3s.

Keystone, down by seven, uniquely decided to run out the clock for the last 30 seconds of the third quarter instead of trying to score. That time went to waste as the Wildcats missed a long 3 at the buzzer.

With the score 36-29 at the start of the fourth quarter, Smithville charged onward and never looked back. Even though Hopkins, who finished with 29 points, kept Keystone in the game, the Wildcats just could not stop the Smithies.

With 2:07 remaining, Tolan Shane stole the ball in got it to Bates for a transition basket, causing the home crowd to erupt, but again, Keystone responded with a steal and layup by Hopkins.

"To their credit, they really got after it. They started attacking the hole and got to the rebounds," Frizell said.

The Smithies struggled to inbound the ball after taking a timeout with 1:22 remaining, throwing a pass out of bounds, then getting nailed with a five-second violation.

But Keystone, trying desperately to make up its deficit, couldn't connect. Bates grabbed a final rebound, and from there the Smithies secured the win at the foul line. Bates was 7-of-11 at the line en route to a team-high 19 points, while Callender added 13 points and Pew tossed in nine. Pew and Bates both grabbed nine rebounds, while Keystone's C.J. Conrad picked off a game-high 11 boards.

"It was a tough win. We gutted it out at the end. I felt like we struggled it out at the end but it was nice to come out with the win," said Callender.

Smithville (14-9) will play against Waynedale in a sectional final Saturday at 6 p.m..

"They're a dogfight. Unlike Keystone they're small, but they get very aggressive and they really move the ball," said Frizell, whose team split with the Golden Bears in the regular season. "They're a well coached team so we've got out work cut out obviously."